IMO Brazier has clearly had the superior career, even if he never gets back to his previous heights.
But whose career would I rather have had? That's a much harder question. As truly great as Brazier has been at his best, I have to say I feel bad for him: it must have been a rough road these last 3 years. It's tough for athletes when they reach great heights early and have this taken away by injury or other events out of their control.
Global gold medal, American records, world best 600i.
Taking that over longevity and US titles everyday and twice on Sunday.
Idk why anyone would not pick this. Winning races…vs middle of the pack world class running. Kinda insane we’re writing Don off at 26.
But it is a value judgement. I'd rather race for a decade in the Diamond League and Olympics (as a "mid-packer") that win one WC and get injured and retire unfulfilled. It is just a matter of taste.
It goes to that question of whose life would you rather have lived - Nick Willis' or Centro's? There isn't a "right answer" because people have distinctly different definitions of what it means to live a good life.
I am one of those runners who likes the running & racing in and of itself, so a career where I get paid to do that for 10 years (incl. Olympics) is better than an alternate version that is 2-3 years (but includes a WC gold). But that is just my opinion.
Was thinking about this the other day, for the sake of simplicity the scenario is Brazier retires right now as it's impossible to tell if he'll ever get back into 2019/2020 form (even though I think there's still a chance of that). Brazier obviously had a higher high with his WC gold and American Record, but Symmonds has a WC Silver and made multiple World/Olympic teams while being domestically dominant for a long period. I think an argument can be made for both of them, but personally I would lean towards Brazier's over Symmonds.
I'd rather have Symmonds career, just because it seems like more fun. It honestly would kind of suck to have a short career where you were clearly number one in the world and go out with a career ending injury just before the olympics and never get back to where you were. There are so many question marks about how good brazier could have been. Symmonds had the exact opposite career. There is no doubt that he got every last ounce out of his potential. He had what appears to be a pretty fun career, always exceeding expectations. He wasn't even a D1 athlete in NCAA, and he won so many US titles and had some great moments. His olympics was amazing, making a final and setting his lifetime PB, and getting to watch the world record from behind.